[The Agriculture
Stabilization & Conservation Service (ASCS) was an agency of the United
States Department of Agriculture. Among other programs, it distributed
cash crop subsidies, assigned acreage allotments, and made price-support
and land-conversion loans to farmers who grew cotton, corn, tobacco,
peanuts, and so on. Under the ASCS system, farmers in each county
elected a committee that divided up the money and acreage allotments
amongst them. Historically, Blacks in the Deep South were exlcuded from
these elections, and the all-white committees denied Black farmers their
fair share — enriching white farmers at the expense of
Blacks. In the mid-1960s freedom organizations such as SNCC, CORE and
COFO began organizing Black farmers to vote in, and run candidates for,
the ASCS elections.]